Big Problems – Impact Lab

Robots That Act Like Children: The Next Frontier of Emotional Support

September 24, 2025

By Futurist Thomas Frey

Hospitals are places of healing, but they are also places of fear, loneliness, and overwhelming stress—especially for children. To address this hidden dimension of patient care, a new kind of companion has emerged: Robin, a therapeutic robot programmed to act like a 7-year-old girl.

Developed by Expper Technologies, Robin is not just a machine rolling down hallways—it is a social presence, designed to talk, laugh, and play in ways that disarm anxiety. CEO Karen Khachikyan describes Robin as a tool to supplement the efforts of overworked medical staff, helping create emotional connections at moments when patients need them most. This is more than innovation. It is the beginning of a revolution in how society thinks about care.

Big Problems, Employment

The Childcare Crisis Is Crushing Workforce Participation

September 23, 2025

By Futurist Thomas Frey

America is facing a silent but devastating economic crisis, and it’s not about inflation, interest rates, or even the much-discussed labor shortage. It’s about childcare—or more precisely, the lack of it. Behind the headlines about workforce participation and economic growth lies a system so fragile that millions of parents are being forced to choose between earning a paycheck and caring for their kids.

In 2020, a staggering 58% of working parents reported leaving work because they could not find adequate childcare. State economies collectively lost between $165 million and $9 billion due to these challenges, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And while the pandemic exposed the issue in dramatic fashion, the truth is that the childcare crisis has been building for decades.

Big Problems, Military, military drones, Robotics, Robots

Missile-Dodging Drones: China’s Latest War Machines Are Built to Survive—and Kill

August 4, 2025

Nine out of ten combat drones don’t make it home. In today’s battlefields, most are swatted from the sky by sophisticated defense systems before they even reach their targets. But a team of Chinese aerospace engineers believes they’ve just rewritten the rules of drone warfare—by making the machines harder to hit than ever before.

Forget stealth. These drones fight back with speed, unpredictability, and brute acceleration.

Big Problems

Jaw-Dropping Stats About the State of Retirement in America

July 15, 2022

By Rob Poindexter

Many Americans spend their lives working hard and dreaming of the day they can finally retire. But planning for retirement requires more than dreaming — it means being strategic and focused on saving money, among other things. The average age of retirement for Americans is 66, according to a Gallup poll, which is up from age 60 in the 1990s. With Americans living an average of 78.7 years, that’s a good 12 or more years of time to enjoy life after work, at a hopefully slower pace.

Of the 47.8 million Americans ages 65 and older, the average income is only $38,515 dollars, according to the U.S. Census, and their average net worth is $170,516. With numbers like that, saving for retirement can be challenging. Here are other shocking statistics about the state of retirement in the U.S.

Young People Think They’ll Retire Early … Until They’re Older
According to a Gallup poll study, when 18- to 29-year-olds were interviewed about retirement, younger people expressed optimism that they’ll be able to retire early, closer to their early 60s. However, once they hit 30, that optimism wanes, perhaps due to the realities of making a living catching up with them.

Big Problems, Science & Technology News

America’s Clutter Problem

March 19, 2022

BY JOSH SANBURN

When the Amazon packages arrive at her door, Dana Harvey experiences one of two feelings: Ecstasy or Nausea. Harvey, 54, is a family therapist in Los Angeles who also practices another kind of therapy–retail.

She readily admits to indulging in those fleeting moments of joy that come from purchasing. But Harvey also realized the moments were piling up all around her. Her 8-ft.-long pine dining table soon disappeared under mountains of clothes, purses and books. She began making excuses about why her house was a wreck. Eventually she stopped having friends over. She was too embarrassed.

Last year, Harvey hired a professional organizer to help her get her things in order and curb her spending. Together, they threw out or donated bags and bags of shoes, scarves, jewelry, hats, appliances, stuffed animals and unused makeup. Some items still had their tags attached. Today, more often than not, Harvey can find a place for the possessions she decided to keep. She often includes “Clear 10 Things” on her daily to-do list. Her home is less cluttered. Her friends stop by more. Her dining table is a table again. But as spring arrives, she still feels the pull of her iPad, the seasonal clothes and deals just waiting for her online.

For middle-class Americans, it’s never been easier to feel consumed by consumption. Despite the recession, despite a brief interlude when savings rates shot up and credit-card debt went down, Americans arguably have more stuff now than any society in history. Children in the U.S. make up 3.1% of the world’s kid population, but U.S. families buy more than 40% of the toys purchased globally. The rise of wholesalers and warehouse supermarkets has packed our pantries and refrigerators with bulk items that often overflow into a second fridge. One-click shopping and same-day delivery have driven purchasing to another level altogether, making conspicuous consumption almost too easy.

Big Problems, Science & Technology News

How the world ran out of a critical technology that powers our cars, phones, and more

March 17, 2021

BY HAMZA MUDASSIR

There’s a global shortage in semiconductors, and it’s becoming increasingly serious. The U.S. is currently reviewing its supply of the technology, following a landmark executive order from President Joe Biden.

The president also pledged $37 billion to cover the short-term costs of rebuilding and securing America’s supply of semiconductors, which are a fundamental part of microchips and thus integral to everything from computers to smartphones to renewable energy and military hardware.

The automotive sector has been worst affected by the drought, in an era where microchips now form the backbone of most cars. Ford is predicting a 20% slump in production, and Tesla shut down its Model 3 assembly line for two weeks. In the U.K., Honda was forced to temporarily shut its plant as well.

Big Problems, Environment, Green Friendly, Science & Technology News

These researchers have found a way to turn a common plastic into high-value molecules

November 7, 2020

More than 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic has been produced in the last six decades.

However, recycling plastic can be difficult as the most common process involves melting and reworking the material.

A new process developed by the University of California can turn polyethylene into useful smaller molecules.

If you thought those flimsy disposable plastic grocery bags represented most of our plastic waste problem, think again. The volume of plastic the world throws away every year could rebuild the Ming Dynasty’s Great Wall of China – about 3,700 miles long.

Continue reading… “These researchers have found a way to turn a common plastic into high-value molecules”

Analysis, Big Problems, Brain, Science & Technology News, Trending

IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn’t bode well for humanity

October 28, 2020

IQ rates are dropping and we’re too stupid to figure out why.

An intelligence crisis could undermine our problem-solving capacities and dim the prospects of the global economy.

IQ rates are falling across Western Europe, and experts are scratching their heads as to why.May 22, 2019, 2:31 AM MDT

People are getting dumber. That’s not a judgment; it’s a global fact. In a host of leading nations, IQ scores have started to decline.

Though there are legitimate questions about the relationship between IQ and intelligence, and broad recognition that success depends as much on other virtues like grit, IQ tests in use throughout the world today really do seem to capture something meaningful and durable. Decades of research have shown that individual IQ scores predict things such as educational achievement and longevity. More broadly, the average IQ score of a country is linked to economic growth and scientific innovation.

Continue reading… “IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn’t bode well for humanity”

AI, Analysis, Big Data, Big Problems, Food, Science & Technology News

An AI analysis of 500,000 studies shows how we can end world hunger

October 21, 2020

An Indian farmer dries harvested rice from a paddy field in Assam.

Ending hunger is one of the top priorities of the United Nations this decade. Yet the world appears to be backsliding, with an uptick of 60 million people experiencing hunger in the last five years to an estimated 690 million worldwide.

To help turn this trend around, a team of 70 researchers published a landmark series of eight studies in Nature Food, Nature Plants, and Nature Sustainability on Monday. The scientists turned to machine learning to comb 500,000 studies and white papers chronicling the world’s food system. The results show that there are routes to address world hunger this decade, but also that there are also huge gaps in knowledge we need to fill to ensure those routes are equitable and don’t destroy the biosphere.

Continue reading… “An AI analysis of 500,000 studies shows how we can end world hunger”

Big Problems, Coronavirus, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

Will we ever trust crowds again?

October 9, 2020

If socializing makes you cringe, you’re not alone. Scientists say the pandemic is re-shaping our senses of fear and disgust, and it’s unclear how long the change will last.

WATCHING A RERUN of the 1990s sitcom Seinfeld gave me the first inkling that COVID-19 might be rearranging my mind for the long term. On the screen, the characters sat across the table from each other at Monk’s Café. Kramer flopped into the frame, draping his arm around another occupied chair. As his arm touched another person, I physically recoiled.

By then, my hometown of New Orleans was a few weeks into the pandemic, and I was already stepping off the curb whenever a stranger approached. If someone slipped by my paranoia and caught me unaware on the sidewalk, I held my breath and rolled my eyes as they barged past. Those behaviors felt natural, even though by mid-March, scientists were already pointing out the low risk of coronavirus transmission in the outdoors. All of my friends reported feeling something similar, and one told me that she had to turn off the TV if a subway scene came on. We’re not alone. Even as some states begin to reopen, most Americans—regardless of political affiliation—say that they’re uncomfortable going into crowded situations, indoors and out, according to a recent Morning Consult poll.

Neuroscientists and psychologists propose that people aren’t cringing around strangers and crowds because of pre-existing senses of fear or disgust. Instead, many in society are simultaneously learning a new emotional experience.

Continue reading… “Will we ever trust crowds again?”

Big Problems, Biotech, Environment, Green Friendly, Science & Technology News

New super-enzyme eats plastic bottles six times faster

October 8, 2020

Breakthrough that builds on plastic-eating bugs first discovered by Japan in 2016 promises to enable full recycling

A super-enzyme that degrades plastic bottles six times faster than before has been created by scientists and could be used for recycling within a year or two.

The super-enzyme, derived from bacteria that naturally evolved the ability to eat plastic, enables the full recycling of the bottles. Scientists believe combining it with enzymes that break down cotton could also allow mixed-fabric clothing to be recycled. Today, millions of tonnes of such clothing is either dumped in landfill or incinerated.

Plastic pollution has contaminated the whole planet, from the Arctic to the deepest oceans, and people are now known to consume and breathe microplastic particles. It is currently very difficult to break down plastic bottles into their chemical constituents in order to make new ones from old, meaning more new plastic is being created from oil each year.

Continue reading… “New super-enzyme eats plastic bottles six times faster”

Big Problems, Coronavirus, Housing, mobile apps, Science & Technology News

A new startup is recruiting gig workers to help landlords evict people from their homes, calling it the fastest-growing moneymaking gig because of COVID-19

September 30, 2020

A new startup is recruiting gig workers to help landlords evict people who can’t afford to pay rent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Civvl, which Motherboard described as “Uber, but for evicting people,” has posted job listings across the US that encourage gig workers to join the app and work as eviction crew members.

Civvl notes that landlords are looking to hire workers to evict tenants who can’t afford to pay rent, advertising the gig as the “FASTEST GROWING MONEY MAKING GIG DUE TO COVID-19.”

The CDC is imposing a moratorium on all evictions across the US, but Civvl’s terms appear to pass on responsibility to landlords to ensure that evictions carried out through the startup are legal.

Continue reading… “A new startup is recruiting gig workers to help landlords evict people from their homes, calling it the fastest-growing moneymaking gig because of COVID-19”